This discussion about autoremove and purge sent me looking for info. And, as usual, this old dog learned some new tricks. Here is what I found.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...1#post12906401
Before one runs autoremove
sudo apt-get -purge autoremove
it would be good to do
sudo apt-get -s -purge autoremove
to see what it is going to do.
But, like I said, I never have had problems using autoremove (without purge).
P.S. -- I forgot to mention, again, that because I run btrfs I can take a snapshot of my system before any suspected changes and roll back if things go south.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...1#post12906401
Re: Be Careful with Apt-Get!
There are two possible use cases here, and people frequently get confused between them.
Use Case #1: Fresh install (or release-upgrade). Most applications and utilities and lots of other packages are automatically marked as manually-installed despite that they are automatically-installed. So if you installed Kubuntu from an .iso, Dolphin is installed automatically, but marked as manual. When you customize your system, you can remove the kubuntu-desktop metapackage, but all your applications don't autoremove.
Advantage: Autoremove won't uninstall large chunks of your system when you uninstall a metapackage or key application.
Disadvantage: Lots of dependencies are not autoremoved when no longer needed. This is a lot of the stuff that minimal-install folks and are trying to avoid.
Tip: Use the command apt-mark showmanual to see what is currently marked as manual on your system.
Tip: Use the command sudo apt-mark [auto | manual] <packagename> to change a package's (or list of packages) marking.
Use Case #2: Adding a new application plus dependencies. New stuff you install is properly marked by apt as manually-installed, and all the dependencies that come with it are properly-marked as automatically-installed. It's dependency management the way we expect apt to behave...except when users install entire desktop environments and forget that Dolphin is a (automatic) dependency of (manual) kubuntu-desktop and other kubuntu applications.
Advantage: For single applications and libs, expected behavior.
Disadvantage: Removing a metapackage may remove large chunks of included packages.
There are two possible use cases here, and people frequently get confused between them.
Use Case #1: Fresh install (or release-upgrade). Most applications and utilities and lots of other packages are automatically marked as manually-installed despite that they are automatically-installed. So if you installed Kubuntu from an .iso, Dolphin is installed automatically, but marked as manual. When you customize your system, you can remove the kubuntu-desktop metapackage, but all your applications don't autoremove.
Advantage: Autoremove won't uninstall large chunks of your system when you uninstall a metapackage or key application.
Disadvantage: Lots of dependencies are not autoremoved when no longer needed. This is a lot of the stuff that minimal-install folks and are trying to avoid.
Tip: Use the command apt-mark showmanual to see what is currently marked as manual on your system.
Tip: Use the command sudo apt-mark [auto | manual] <packagename> to change a package's (or list of packages) marking.
Use Case #2: Adding a new application plus dependencies. New stuff you install is properly marked by apt as manually-installed, and all the dependencies that come with it are properly-marked as automatically-installed. It's dependency management the way we expect apt to behave...except when users install entire desktop environments and forget that Dolphin is a (automatic) dependency of (manual) kubuntu-desktop and other kubuntu applications.
Advantage: For single applications and libs, expected behavior.
Disadvantage: Removing a metapackage may remove large chunks of included packages.
sudo apt-get -purge autoremove
it would be good to do
sudo apt-get -s -purge autoremove
to see what it is going to do.
But, like I said, I never have had problems using autoremove (without purge).
P.S. -- I forgot to mention, again, that because I run btrfs I can take a snapshot of my system before any suspected changes and roll back if things go south.
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